


Kids of The Future

by ShadowRose13



Series: Kids of the Future [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Time Travel, kids from the future
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-27
Updated: 2018-01-10
Packaged: 2019-02-22 11:57:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13166442
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadowRose13/pseuds/ShadowRose13
Summary: (I'm pulling a real Sailor Moon for this one)A rarely chill day in the Castle of Lions is suddenly turned upside down when a whole gaggle of kids that strangely look similar to the paladins come flying out of a wormhole. They claim they traveled from 20 years into the future to train with the previous Paladins of Voltron because they are the new ones. However, they refuse to reveal their identities exept for their names. Keith and Shiro feel like something is definitely up with these kids and are both hell bound and determined to figure it out.





	1. Chapter 1

 

Chapter 1

Doin' The Time Warp

* * *

It was a rarity in The Castle of Lions to have a day where literally nothing happens. Well, nothing that requires the paladins to fight someone or something, or form Voltron, or have to make a run for it and wormhole away from Zarkon's forces. However, when that occasion did arise, the Paladins made sure to take advantage of it and relax as much as possible, weather they did it together or not. The gang was in the Lounge this time. Pidge glued to her laptop while Hunk was looking over her shoulder. They were attempting to find a good recipe for peanut butter cookies so Hunk could make Pidge some for her birthday, which was coming up soon. Shiro and Keith were off to the side talking about something and Lance was trying to explain to Allura how a milkshake is actually made in order to make up for the cow milking incident. All was well, that is , until the screen of Pidge's laptop began to glitch out. "Huh?" Pidge adjusted her glasses "That's weird. I added some upgrades to it last night. This shouldn't be happening." "What's going on?" asked Hunk. Pidge lifted up her laptop to check the heat of the bottom, but it wasn't even luke warm. She only ever remembered seeing a screen glitch out like this whenever matt touched a computer or the TV after shuffling around the carpet in socks- _wait a minute._ Suddenly I lightbulb went of in her head. "It appears to be glitching due to to interfearrance from an outside source." Pidge stated as she started typing to correct the problem. "Oh you mean like when you generate static electricity and you touch a lightbulb and it flickers?" Hunk offered. "Exactly." Pidge readjusted her glasses again, which keep sliding down her face due to her small button nose. Neither had time to come up with a solution before a bright white flash of light blinded everyone in the room for a split second. When the light subsided, in the middle of the lounge floor, a red vortex that looked like a wormhole had appeared! It couldn't have been any bigger than Shiro, who along with Keith, already leaped in front of the vortex; for they were the only ones out of all of them that were armed at all times. Keith drew his knife and Shiro's robot hand was already glowing purple. Ready to fight anyone or anything that was going to be spit out of that "portal". Hunk hid Pidge behind him, acting as a giant human shield, and Allura hid lance behind her. Allura may be a princess and be for peace, but  she will definitely cut a bitch if she has to. In an instant, a blur of red, black and silver shot out of the wormhole and crashed into Shiro so hard, he slid a few feet as he hid the ground. Whatever hit him, he caught in his arms. Once his vision came back to normal after the impact the fall made on his head, he saw what he caught wasn't what, but a who. A girl and a young one at that. She had to be at least a year older than Pidge (who is 15). Her long hair had fallen onto the side of Shiro's head as they fell. Her eye's looked earrily similar to Keith's A kind of blackish grey with only a slight hint of purple under certain lights. They also had the same subtle kind of fire behind them. Her face was dusted a rosy pink with embarrassment as she scrambled to get off of him. "I am so sorry!" See quickly apologized. Now that Shiro wasn't on the floor after being rugby tackled, he was able to get a batter look at her. Her head was was half-shaven with a mane of long, raven Black hair that looked like a lion's mane reaching to her waist on her left side. She was dressed like a punk with a red leather jacket which had silver spikes on the shoulders and underneath, a black T-shirt. She had on black, slightly ripped jeans and wore brown combat boots. On her hands were black fingerless gloves which looked identical to the one's keith wore. He should know, Shiro did get those for Keith as a gift. Also on her wrists were a few black and silver bracelets in true punk fashion. Now that Shiro thought about it, this girl did look a lot like Keith. despite the matching color scheme in their outfits, the similarity was almost kind of creepy. He began to wonder if she was a female version of Keith from another reality. HIs thoughts were interrupted when Keith jumped in front of him and put his knife blade to the girl's pale throat. "Woah, dude! Take it easy!" the girl shot her hands up in surrender, "I come in peace!" Keith was slightly thrown off by how similar her eyes were to his, but he didn't let up on his grip of the knife. Shiro put his hand on Keith's shoulder. "Stand down, Keith. She won't bite." Keith looked to Shiro, then back at the girl. His eyes may be dark, the girl could tell there was a kind of fire behind those eyes that nobody should even dare to try igniting. He gave her a look before he lowered the knife that she definitely didn't need words to understand.

_I'm watching you._

Well, now that I know that I'm not going to die, to avoid any confusion when the others get here, I should introduce myself." The girl put out her hand. "I'm Kara." after an awkwardly long pause, Shiro took her hand and shook it with a good grip. "I'm Shiro." "Oh we know who you are." Kara stated, "We meaning me and my friends, who should be getting here in a tic. We traveled looking for you." Everyone else looked at eachother confused and wide eyed. "Me?" asked Shiro, surprised and almost kind of flattered. "Actually we were looking for all of you." She corrected as she gestured to the rest of the paladins. "We know who you are, too. Keith, cool blade by the way." She turned and pointed towards Keith's knife. "uh, thanks?" Keith never knew how to respond to compliments. "Hunk, Pidge." Kara looked over at them as Pidge peeked around Hunk and waved. "Lance, and Princess Allura." Lance shot off finger guns as Kara bowed. "An honor to meet you, your highness. I'd curtsey, but I don't have a dress on." Allura smiled. For a girl dressed like she just walked out of a human clothing shop she's heard about called "Hot Topic," she sure knew her manners. "It's nice to meet you too, Kara. And what a lovely name. In Altean the name Kara means "the Fiery One."" Kara blushed at the compliment "Well then that really does suit me. Considering I'm-." "I hate to break up the chat," Shiro interrupted, "But why are you looking for us?" "I'll explain once everyone else gets here. It will make more sense then." Kara stated. Electricity arced around the portal behind them. "Speaking of which, you might want to move out of the way before-" Kara didn't get to finish before another blur came bolting out of the portal. This time, it was blue and white. Kara caught the blur by the waist and sharpened into a human figure. "OOF!" the figure grunted as she was caught. Another girl. This one had light mocha skin with wavy brown hair. small braids were done in threes on either side of her head. She wore high-waisted faded blue jeans, and a royal blue quarter sleeved shirt. Her combat boots were different from Kara's in that they were knee high and black in color. She also wore a blue and white bomber jacket with a blue lion embroidered on the back. Her entire outfit matched her stunning blue eyes. Shiro was getting a little weirded out when he looked back and fourth between Lance and the other girl. For a split second he thought they were related. "You alright, Lori?" asked Kara as the blue clad girl -assumed to be Lori- dusted herself off. "Yeah. Woo! What a ride! Can we do that again?" Lori exclaimed. "I'd rather not," Kara dreaded the time when she would eventually have to go back through there again and have her stomach bounce around in her body like a pinball game.   "Now introduce yourself before somebody else comes through and knocks you down like a domino." Lori turned to see the paladins standing around her. "Right!" Lori exclaimed "Finding them was a lot easier than I thought. Hello! Loriana's the name, sharpshooting's the game, but flirting.." She slid over to Keith, "Is the profession." Lori winked at him with a smirk. Kara just rolled her eyes and yanked her back by the arm. "Really?" Kara asked annoyed. Before Lori had time to apologize, two large blurry figures came out of the portal. But these looked more humanoid than human. A boy and a Girl. Both equal in size and muscle mass. Shiro and Keith were sure that either of them -appearently twins from the looks of it- could probably rip a Galra century in half with their bare hands. Their skin was the same shade of caramel and had eyes the color of 24-karat gold. Both wore matching orange ties around their heads. Both black haired and muscular. The girl, who willing to bet money was 6 foot 4, wore a yellow tank top and a camo vest. She wore fingerless gloves to match Kara's and had on cargo pants and brown lace up military boots. On her left arm was a very intricate tattoo that looked to be samoan. the boy had one too, but on his right arm. It showed through his yellow t shirt and brown aviator jacket with the sleeves missing. He also wore military boots to match his sister's and camo pants. "Ah, good." Kara looked behind her, "The twins are here." both of them gave a smile and waved. Shiro had to hide his curiosity because Upon closer inspection of the twins, they had spikes growing on their arms in pairs up to their wrists and he could see larger ones peeking out of their hair on the sides of their heads. Keith looked at Shiro and he could definitely tell that he and Shiro were definitely thinking the same thing. _something is definitely off about these kids._ "Lilinoe." The girl states her name, "But most call me Lilly for short. And this is my brother, Danny." "Hi." Danny waved and looked around, "Where's Leo?" "Guess he's last." Kara looked around too. Then as if by coincidence, a flash of Green came barreling out of the portal. Kara caught the blur in her arms. The figure sharpened and Kara was suddenly looking into a pair of large amber eyes. A boy with Harry Potter style glasses who was only a few inches shorter than Kara stared back into her eyes too. He was wearing a dress shirt with rolled up sleeves and an argyle green and orange sweater vest. His light brown unruly hair had a single green streak in it. His face had a splash of freckles across his nose and cheeks, but not even that could hide his rosy cheeks as he was being held by Kara. Her face in turn was as red as the jacket she wore. They immediately let go of eachother and were red as a cherry. Keith and Shiro looked at eachtoher and smirked. Lance saw it too and could already smell a blossoming romance. Kara looked around and did a mental head count. "Welp, that's everyone!" Kara said a little too quickly. Like she's hiding something. "NOT QUITE!" a female voice boomed from the portal. And from her tone, she sounded more angry than scared. Kara sighed in exasperation. "Oh, great." The final figure stepped through the portal. She was a girl a little bit taller than Kara. Her hair seemed to be suspiciously put up inside of a black beanie like she was trying to hide it. Her skin was dark and made her navy blue eyes stand out. Her ears were pointed like Allura's, but not as big. The white markings on her cheeks were definitely Altean in origin. Allura looked at her with hope that mabe she and coran weren't the last Alteans after all. She wore a Black leather vest with a white lion on the back. under that, a grey half sleeve t-shirt. Her jeans were black and she wore white converse to add contrast. However, there was n denying that the suspicious red stains on the shoes were definitely not paint. Her eyes were iced over with anger as she walked over to Kara, trying to control herself. "What makes you think this is a good idea? and how dare you try and leave me behind!" the girl roared, "Time travel is dangerous magic and you could have killed yourself with the amount of energy that took to maintain that portal!" speaking of the portal, it shrunk behind them and closed at its mere mention. "How are we going to know where we're going if we don't know where we've been?" Kara asked. "Learning from the previous paladins - _Kara moved only her eyes towards the Paladins as if it were a code word for something-_ will help us not make the same mistakes and hopefully become better! Training during a time of peace isn't very effective. If we want to be prepared for anything hat the universe throws at us, then we might as well fight the worst the universe had to offer. Besides you heard them yourself. Even _he_ agreed it was a good idea. Kara moved her eyes towards Shiro and he thankfully didn't notice that she was talking about him. "I'm just looking out for your health, that's all." the girl tried to defend herself. "Yeah sure, now that's your excuse. If you really were looking out for me then you wouldn't undermine me in front of the tem. You and your Dad wanted me to lead Voltron. This is how I lead. And if you have a problem with how I lead this team, then you need tell me to my face instead of everyone else. got it?" "Alright enough, you two." Shiro thankfully stepped in before it escalated into a brawl. "Now who's this?" "I'm Sarah." the girl stepped foreward and put out her hand for a handshake, "Pleased to meet you, Da- I mean Shiro." He shook her hand, but was stuck on what Sarah had stopped herself from saying. Was she about to say "Dad?" "Now that everyone's here, care to explain why that is, Kara?" Shrio looked over to her. "Oh and the time travel?" Lance added. "And the 'Previous Paladins'?" Keith chimed in. Kara took a deep breath and exhaled. "I'll answer all of that on one condition. No questions about our parents." Now Shiro definitely had reasons to think something's up. He just nodded in agreement so they didn't think he was onto them. "Good. Now to answer all your questions, we traveled back in time from 20 years into the future. We are the future Paladins of Voltron, and I used my magic to create a wormhole that would take us back to the height of the war against the Galra in order to train with the previous paladins. Training in a time of peace didn't prove very effective, so I came up with this crazy idea and the current Black Paladin agreed. Despite this one's- _gesturing to Sarah-_ protests. So here we are. Kara took out her Bayard which turned into a sword in her hand. She knelt to the ground with the sword's blade pointing downward. "We would be honored if you taught is in the ways of being Paladins." She stated in a serious tone. The rest of them knelt on one knee, too. Our paladins were too shocked to say anything. They all just stood there in shock and awe not knowing what to say or do. They all knew one thing for sure though. Their leisure day had just gotten a lot more interesting

* * *

 


	2. Lions and Lionesses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> after a strange meeting, the future paladins are taken in and shown the ropes. Keith and Shiro agree upon their suspicions. Hijinks, angst, fluff, and fight scenes ensue, and some sick lion armor is involved as well as a training session that went south VERY quickly.

Chapter 2

Lions and Lionesses

* * *

After the future paladins had to make it awkward with that whole bowing and asking to be trained thing, the current paladins took them in. Thankfully, since their ship was a castle, there was definitely no shortage of room space. The current paladins all split up and took the kids to their respective rooms. Lori went with Lance, Leo with Pidge, the twins with Hunk, and Keith took Sarah. Shiro elected to show Kara around since she's the future leader and he's the current leader. Besides, he still had a lot of questions he needed answers to. After a few minutes of walking around in silence, Shiro thought it would be a good time to start asking. "So, you're the future Black Paladin, it take it?" he asked. "Yeah." was all Kara felt like saying on the matter. He detected a hint of sadness in her voice. "I think it was pretty smart of you to want to learn from Paladins of the past so you won't make the same mistakes. That's the thinking of a good leader." He tried. But the word 'Leader' looked like it stung her a little. "So what's Sarah's deal? Why s she so mad at you?" This interrogation was not going as well as he had planned. "I wish I knew." Kara sighed, "Look, I don't mean to sound rude, but can we please talk about something else?" Shiro was surprised at how forward it sounded, but he had to get more info. "Alright. well then what about your magic?" he asked. "Last time I checked, humans can't time travel." Thankful for the change of subject, Kara gladly explains why a human can suddenly time travel with wormholes. "This one can!" She pointed to herself with her thumb. 20 years into the future, Allura still runs the castle of course and helps us train. She thought it would be a better idea to give us powers of our own to defend ourselves with in case we were captured or something and stripped of our armor and bayards. So, she got a crystal from the Balmera and split it into 6 pieces. She poured her own magic into them and embedded them into our skin in some way so they couldn't be taken away from us, like pieces of jewelry. Mine is on my hand." Kara took off the fingerless glove on her right hand and showed Shiro her palm. in the center, was a small reddish orange crystal shaped like a rhombus. "Neat!" was the only thing Shiro could come up with. Kara slipped the glove back onto her hand. "Of course, we can use any kind f magic we want with these, but we each have our preferences. Like me. I love using fire. It's beautiful, but also very dangerous. I fused it with my martial arts training so I have better control over it." Kara looked pretty smug and proud of herself. "Does that mean you'll be pulling tricks in the training room?" Shiro asked. "Maaabe." Kara grinned mischieviously. They arrived at the door of a room near Keith's room. The doors hissed open and the walked in. "Well, here we are." Shiro gestured to the room, "Home away from home." "Thanks." Kara simply said before plopping down on the bed. "Come down to the training room when your ready." Shiro encouraged the dejected looking girl. "Pidge and Hunk are already placing bets that you're gonna take Keith to school." Kara couldn't help but laugh at the thought. She already fought her dad once, but he was a little older then than he is now. She wondered if she could still take him. "I'd much rather see what your packin'. I know what Keith is capable of." Kara joked. "Let's put you through a few training exercises and we'll see." Shiro played along. He turned and began to walk away. "Kara..." He turned his head to look back at her, "Welcome Aboard." Kara smiled and nodded. The doors shut behind Shiro and he left Kara to her own devices. He walked away and went to find Keith. They ran into eachother  a couple of hallways later and both admitted that they had the same suspicions. Shiro and Keith relayed eachother the info the other had gotten from their respective tours. Sarah didn't talk much and only got which lion she flew. The Red one. Shiro didn't get a lot out of Kara either, but it was more than what Keith got. I mean hey, its a start. They agreed to head to the training room to see if anyone else was there, where they could talk without worrying about eavesdroppers. They came to the training room, but they heard voices through the doors to the control room. Shiro and Keith knelt down and leaned towards the door to get better sound. "Nice going, Lori. you almost made us blow our cover." A male voice spat. It was a few octaves too high to belong to a guy as big as Danny, so it was definitely Leo. "I didn't do that!" Lori fired back. "You were flirting with Keith and almost made us have to reveal ourselves to avoid confusion!" Leo retorted. "You're making a big deal out of nothing! And I'm sorry!" Lori flicked her hair on her shoulder back behind her. "I can't help if younger Keith is hot as hell. No wonder my Dad used to have a thing for him! I never believed him until I saw it for myself." Leo looked at her in disgust. "Gross, dude! He's...you know." "I know, I know." Lori retorted in annoyance. "Just pretend it never happened and let's head down to the training deck. We gotta armor up anyway." Leo began making his way out of the control room onto the deck. "Tell me I wasn't the only one that heard that.' Shiro's voice came out as a whisper. "Nope. Heard it too." Keith whispered back, "What am I to them that they don't want to say out loud?" "I don't know, but I think we gotta call in a certain Green Paladin for backup. I don't like the way these kids are sneaking around right under our noses." Shiro formulated a plan in his head. It was not going to be smart to just waltz in and interrogate and accuse. He needed evidence to confront them with. If they play their cards right, they can back those kids into a corner and get them to tell the truth. The doors to the control rom hissed open as Shiro and Keith walked inside. Lori and Leo were already down on the deck, but Kara was there, too as if she just appeared there. She must have gotten there before Lori and Leo did. She was in a corner with her arms crossed leaning against the wall. Ok now she's getting to be a little too much like Keith for Shiro's comfort. Behind them, Lilly, Danny, Sarah, Hunk, and Pidge came in tow. "Man, I can't believe how much the castle hasn't changed!" Danny exclaimed, scratching his head, "Its like we never left!" "Well this castle was built 10,600 years before any of us existed." Lilly pointed out. "Point taken." Danny agreed. They all headed down to the training deck together and met Lori, Leo, Kara, and lance down there. Shiro ordered them to armor up, but looking at them he's pretty sure they didn't bring anything with them besides a few things and the clothes on their backs. However, they suddenly all got into a V-formation and Kara shouted out something vaguely in Altean. As if by magic, they all had on epic suits of armor. And I do mean EPIC suits of armor. Each of the suits were in a different color and had elemental designs on the armor. For example, Sarah's red paladin armor had raised details in a deeper shade of red all over the armor that looked like flames. Leo's was a bright green to match his lion and had vines imitating circuit boards. Lori's was covered in ice crystals in a shade of blue to match her lion. Lilly's and Danny's was a sunny bright yellow with cracks like dried up earth that was once a lake bed. Kara's however, stood out from the rest. Her armor was nightshade black with gold detailing and silver trim along her battle skirt. she wore black pants and a black long sleeved shirt under her chest plate, shoulder gaurds, and neck armor. Her boots and gauntlets were sharp at the tips with silver lion claws. The most startling part was that they all had helmets that look like the heads of Lions. Each in their respective colors and all with flowing manes. It was as if they took a page from Heracles' book and donned his Namean Lion skin. Shiro was not going to lie, it was the sickest armor he's ever seen and he could already see Keith wanting to try on that red lion helmet. Lance and Pidge had to pick their jaws up off the floor and Hunk looked kind of intimidated. "THAT IS SO COOL HOLY QUIZNACK!" Lance practically squealed. "Alright, lets get to work." Shiro cracked his knuckles. And so began the training exercises. First up, the Twins versus 5 Altean gladiators. They were able to work together like a whole that was greater than both of its parts as If they were one person and left the gladiators all in piles on the floor. Next up was Leo and Lori and a stealth exercise.  Their objective was to retrieve a crystal from a holographic projection of a sleeping Meulawar (an Altean creature that is basically a fusion of a giant bear and goat with the horns of a gazelle and fangs like a sabertooth tiger.) Lori kept guard and made sure to keep the beast asleep by humming to it. Due to Leo's size and weight, he was able to get to the crystal undetected and obtain it. Everything was going pretty great.....that is until it came to the Blind Maze. Kara and Sarah had to do that one. Kara was in the control room looking at a map of the maze while Sarah had to be the one to actually go through it. This is where things got a little......heated to say the least. Everything was fine for the first ten minutes, but things started to go south the closer Sarah got to the center of the maze. It was like she lost focus or something and was running into every other invisible wall and blaming Kara for it. "OW! Sarah held onto her left shoulder. You did that on purpose!" She yelled into the mic. "I did not, you forgot to take three steps to the left." Kara stated, trying to keep her cool. "That was your excuse last time!" Sarah retorted. "No it wasn't. You couldn't tell which way was right or left." Kara was not having any of this right now. "No, your just messing with me! If you want to pick a fight with me, then come down here and face me like a real paladin!" She turned around and threw her hands in the air. "Quit hiding behind that control room!" That. Is. It. Kara has officially had it up to here with Sarah's attitude towards her and she was going to shut her up one way or another. She wasn't going to fight her for her own pride, but rather to make Sarah chill the fuck out for a while until she can work out her issues. And people think Kara's the hothead.

Despite the protests from Keith and Shiro, Kara came out of the control room and donned her helmet. She knew this looked like a very stupid move on her part from the outside, but inside, she thought this would make Sarah stop being so mad at her. If taking her in a fight is what it took, then that's what she would just have to deal with.

She took her stance a few feet away from her. Kara drew her bayard which turned into a sword. She pressed a black jeweled button on her gauntlet which turned into a black and silver shield with a gold roaring lion's head emblazoned on the front. Sarah drew her bayard, too. Which was also a sword. Except Sarah had no shield. Everybody else stared in fear. Lori and Leo were begging them to stop from the sidelines, but it was too late. This fight had been a long time coming and one thing was certain.

This fight was going to be a bloodbath.

Kara lunged at Sarah with her sword, but she dodged it by a hair. Sarah whacked Kara's blade away from her waist with her own blade. They traded sword blows back and fourth for a few minutes. Their blades almost singing as they cut through the air. _Clink, clank, clunk. Clink, clank clunk._ Sarah kicked Kara in the stomach and knocked her back a few feet. The silver claws on Kara's boots activated and shot into the floor, stabilizing her. They retracted out of the floor and Kara charged. As they were fighting, Keith couldn't help but notice that Kara almost had the same fighting style as him. She attacked from the sides like a ninja, catching her opponent off guard. But she differed when she fought opponents head on. She was almost impossible to keep up with. As the fight continued, she got this kind of wild look in her eyes and fought like a very calculated madwoman. She was not going to quit until one of them had given up. Kara reminded Keith a lot of himself. Now that he thought about it, she did look a little too much like him to be a coincidence. He was starting to see more and more why this chick was making Shiro just as suspicious as he was. Suddenly, the fight escalated when Sarah caught a split second opening. She jabbed Kara's helmet off with her elbow, and punched her square in the jaw. The room fell dead silent. Kara turned her head back around. Sarah was horrified of what she did. A look of shock, hurt, and confusion was on Kara's face as blood dripped out of her mouth, staining her lips and mouth red like the jacket she wore. It was at this moment Sarah knew....she fucked up. Kara's expression the slowly shifted to one of smiling rage. That fire behind her eyes suddenly lit up like it was ignited by flame lit gasoline. Everyone else was thinking the same thing. _Shit just got real._ "

"Oh." Kara's voice, her whole personality changed. It was like a switch flipped or something. She dropped her sword and shield. "So you wanna play it that way?" Suddenly, a metal pair of red and white angel wings unfolded from the back of Kara's armor and she flew into the air. "Very well then. LET'S PLAY!" Her gauntlets began to glow red. Flames burst to life in her hands and began throwing a series of punches that shot fireballs from her fists. Kara had officially lost it and it showed. there were only looks of shock and mass horror on the faces of everyone else in the room. Sarah tried her best to dodge the flames but she already had scorch marks on her armor in random places. "COME ON! IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT?! LET OUT YOUR ANGER AND HATE! JUST DO IT AND GET IT OVER WITH!!!!" She could hear Kara's voice booming. Suddenly, Kara drew whips of fire and lashed at her. Sarah had to roll and jump in order to keep from getting hit. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT!" Sarah yelled back. Suddenly, Kara regained control of herself and forced the flames to die out. She lowered herself from the air and retracted her wings. "You know dam well what I'm talking about!" Kara calmly retorted, trying to regain her composure after she went psycho. "You hate me now! Why?!" she asked angrily. Sarah stared at her in shock and hurt, not knowing what to say. "Kara, I-" "Are you jealous? Is that it?" Kara cut her off. "What? Why would I be jealous?!" Sarah asked confused. "Oh, you know why!" Kara fired back, "The Black Lion chose me and not you! You've dreamt of flying the Black Lion your entire life! Ever since you've been old enough to want anything! But it chose me instead! You've wanted this for so long and I took it away from you without even meaning or wanting to! Do you think I wanted this?! I'm just as upset about it as you are! My own father's Lion rejected me just like yours! Do you have any idea how much more difficult you've made this for me to deal with?! I already feel guilty about it and I could do without you actually hating me over it!" Sarah suddenly felt her pain. She really _did_ make it worse for her. Suddenly Sarah felt very ashamed for the way she was acting. The only reason Kara fought her in the first place was to try and make her feel better and boost her confidence. But she guessed that she went a little too far when she socked Kara square in the jaw and caused her to lose control of her magic temporarily. "Kara......" Sarah was completely in hurt shock and had no idea what to say. "I can't be around you right now." Kara ran out of the training room crying.

She ran down the hallway, not knowing where she was going and not caring either. All she could think about was how she even got in this situation in the first place. She remembered everything about that awful day like it was yesterday. The day when she accidentally established a bond with the Black Lion.

 

 

She was finally deemed old enough to forge a bond with one of the lions. Her father didn't want her to be a paladin due to what he went through during his time piloting both Red and Black, but Kara was determined. She wanted to help protect the universe. She loved fighting. She loved helping people. And she was really really good at it. She was so excited the day the Castle of Lions landed on earth. She and the rest of the Future Paladins had all grown up together due to their parents being so close. She remembered being so happy that Leo bonded with Green and Lori with Blue and they all had green and blue cake baked by the twins to celebrate. She remembered the initial shock and surprised how Yellow bonded with both Lilly and Danny. Proving that not only can a paladin bond with a Lion over long distance, but can also bond with more than one person. So Lilly and Danny ended up being co-pilots (but Lilly was in the driver's seat most of the time) Then, it finally came time for her to bond with her Dad's origional Lion. The Red Lion. Her Dad took her by the hand towards the Red Lion's hangar. Her nerves were like live wires sparking in her chest, ready to burst into flames at any moment. But she was also barely containing her excitement. Her dad all suited up in his red paladin armor, looking ready for another fight; when in reality he was just taking his only daughter to his Lion to see if she'll forge a bond with it. She remembered what her Dad and Auntie Allura said. She would have to earn the Red Lion's respect in order to bond with it. She figured a good idea would be to fight the current red paladin and win. It was a long shot, but hey if it works it works. Besides it's not like either her or her Dad could come up with any better ideas. Her Dad earned Red's respect by almost sacrificing himself being thrown out into the airless vacuum of space trying to bust red out of the Galra ship that captured it. Kara was pretty sure Red didn't like one trick ponies so she opted on not repeating history. The doors slid open and there she stood. The Red Lion. It Had to be at least 20 or 30 feet tall, the bright red paint job scratched and scuffed in certain places after 10,620 years of battle, wear, and tear. Not gonna lie, Kara found it a little intimidating. She kind of spaced out for a minute as she stared into the lion's big yellow eyes. Like they were following either her or her Dad. "Are you sure your ready for this?" Had dad put his hand on her shoulder. She turned around and gave him a hug. Despite the cold metal armor he wore, he still felt like a warm cozy fire place whenever Kara hugged him. "If want to be a paladin of Voltron,.....I have to be ready." Kara held onto him for a little longer. "I know." Her dad looked her in the eyes. Eyes that were nearly identical to hers. His face shifted into a soft smile, "a true rarity." As uncle Lance put it. But to her, he always smiled. She somehow got the feeling that she was the reason for that. "No matter what happens, Bond or no bond, I am still proud of you. And I will always love you. No matter what you're still gonna be my little red lion." He messed with her hair gently. Kara giggled at her nickname. That's been what her Dad had called her ever since she was little. It was like a little badge of pride for her. She was the daughter of the red paladin, Keith Kogane after all. So the name just made sense. As for her actual name, Auntie Allura helped pick it out, or so she's been told. They finally separated and took their stances about 15 feet away from eachother, but they still were both in front of the Red Lion. "Remember, you can't hold back." Keith suddenly took a very serious tone. One Kara had only ever heard when he had to leave on a mission with the other Paladins which was thankfully not that often since the galra war was over. He drew his red bayard which turned into his red blade. "Don't worry," Kara's eyes suddenly got dangerously bright. "I don't plan on it." She in turn drew a pair of knives. One of her own that Leo, Lilly, and Danny made for her birthday, and her Dad's marmoran blade. She was really surprised when her dad just kinda gave it to her as few days before the Castle arrived on earth. She knew how important that knife was to him. He had had it all his life. The only thing he had that connected him to who he really was for so long. None the less she was honored to carry it and took extra special care of it. After a second or two, Keith charged. He may be a little older now, but he sure hasn't slown down. He jumped into the air and lunged with his sword. Kara deflected it with her knives and pushed him away. Keith landed a few feet away and steadied himself. _That's my girl,_ he thought. While he was distracted, Kara was able to hit him from the side and knock him down temporarily, only to use his legs to spring back up again. Suddenly, as he was deflecting her knife slashes, he remembered something. "Don't forget. No magic." He said sternly. "Don't worry." said Kara between blows, "I wasn't planning on taking cheap shots anyway." She flipped backwards and landed on her feet like a cat. They went back and fourth for a while. To anybody watching the fight from the outside, the looked more like they were doing a very deadly dance, due to their more refined and graceful fighting styles. It was like they were equally matched. Two warriors cut from the same blood drenched cloth. Finally, Karah got the upper hand. She saw Keith loosen his grip on his bayard for a split second and took the opportunity to disarm him. His blade turned back into the red bayard and slid across the floor. He certainly taught her well, with a little more help from Shiro of course. She was fierce like the Lion she was born to pilot, Tempremental, and agile. Not to mention fast. He knew Red was going to love her. He was suddenly jolted from his thoughts as hid head hit the wall after Kara superhuman kicked him in the stomach and he flew into the cold metal wall. Quiznack, what was Hunk putting in those milkshakes?! Keith didn't have any time to recover before his daughter had his own marmoran knife to his throat. "I beleive I win." Keith had to agree that she definately did inherit his fighting ability. Although the wild look in her eyes was something he was mildly concerned about. Kara let up her blade and took a step to catch her breath. They walked back towards the Red Lion just enough to be able to look into its eyes and waited. Nothing happened for like a good five minutes. Kara began to lose hope when suddenly, the Red Lion's eyes began to glow. Her heart began to soar only to be shot down again and sink like a stone all the way down to her feet as the Red Lion activated its particle barrier. It felt like a mirror shattering into a thousand tiny peices inside of her. Not only did the Red Lion not bond with her, but it just streight up rejected her. And right in front of her Dad! She was so upset she could cry. "Kara, it's ok." Keith tried. Not really knowing how to comfort her.She was just like him in a lot of ways, but Keith got more frustrated and angry when bad things happened. Kara on the other hand cried sometimes, depending on the situation. Kara had no idea what to do now or how to deal with this. So she did the only thing she could think of, and ran.

Kara bolted out of the hangar as fast as she could with tears in her eyes. She could hear her dad calling out to her, his voice echoing down the hallway. She didn't care where she was going, but as long as her Dad or anybody else wasn't able to find her, she was good. She ran down hall after hall and corridor after corridor. She finally got tired of running and just sat down against the wall with her face resting on her knees. She didn't even know what part of the Castle she was in, so she didn't notice that she was right outside the Green Lion's hangar. She tried to cry as silently as possible so nobody roaming around could hear her. Kara didn't hear the doors to the green lion's hangar quietly hiss open. Leo walked out of the hangar and heard very soft hardly audible sobbing. He looked to his left to see Kara....crying? He's known Kara for years and he knew it took a lot to make et cry. What cookie have happened to make her this upset? "Kara?" She looked up to see who called her name. It was Leo. Her sweet little green nerd. His amber eyes filled with concern and pity. "What happened? Are you okay?" He knelt down and put his hand on her back and could feel it trembling. "Are you hurt?" Leo tried again. "Nah, man." Kara responded in a trembling voice, trying to keep quiet. "Just my pride, I think." Leo took her other gloved hand in his free one. "Wanna talk about it?" He asked carefully. Kara wasn't one to lash out despite her fire and bite, but Leo and his mom had an innate ability to push people's buttons weather it was on purpose or not. "You gotta swear you won't tell anybody." She looked him in the eyes. How could he resist them? They bore into his soul like a kind of black fire that could strike fear into the hearts of thirty thousand men. Or maybe that was just him. "I promise. Paladin's Honor." He stated. He sat down on the cold metal floor on the opposite side of Kara. She took a deep breath and exhaled to try and calm down and regain her composure. She wasn't one to mince words so she decided just to come right out with it. "The Red Lion rejected me." She blurted out. The word 'Rejected' cut into her like a shard of broken glass. Leo had to wrap his head around the thought before he could respond. Kara? Rejected? But that's impossible! All of his study and research showed that she was a perfect fit for Red! All she had to do was earn its respect like her dad did and- /oh no/ he thought. "Are you serious?" He was just completely shocked. He didn't know what else to say. Kara nodded as more tears came. Leo took out a pocket hanky from his shin length cargo pants pocket and dabbed her tears away. Leo had to admit, she was beautiful even when she was crying. "You didn't earn its respect, did you?" He asked. It hurt too much for Kara to say 'No' so she just shook her head instead. She told the whole story up to when the Red Lion activated its particle barrier. Leo didn't know what else to do except to just stay with her and made sure she was ok. "Do you need a hug?" He gave a kind smile. One that always made Kara feel better. They boy always had that effect on her Ever since they were little. She shook her head. Leo knew she was lying and trying to be strong. His heart was breaking for her he felt so bad. He knew a workaround in this routine though. "Well, I want one. " he tried. Kara rolled her eyes and gave a sad smile. She pulled the boy in for a hug. They say there together for a long while like that. Leo just doing his best to make the girl he loved and respected feel better. Suddenly, he had an idea to do just that! "Hey, mabey it's not so bad." Leo pulled away from her to look her in those deep ink pool eyes he loved so much. "How?" Kara asked. Trying to calm down and feeling at least a little better. "Well..... I still can't pilot green and hold up the cloaking device at the same time, but mabey if I had a co-pilot........" he trailed off hoping Kara caught his drift. Her dark eyes grew wide. "Me?" But I'm not that good with tech." She confessed. "I could teach you! It would be way more fun with you and me in the same Lion!" He took both of her hands in his. His face lit up like a Christmas tree at the idea. Kara smiled too, she couldn't help it. It's like his joy was infectious or something. Or mabey that was just her. Kara nodded "Yeah. I'd like that." They smiled at eachother. It was then they became aware that since Leo was smaller that her, he had unknowingly moved into Kara's lap when they hugged. Leo's slightly freckled face turned a dusty pink. "Uh.....sorry." His voice cracked a little. "It's ok. I don't mind. " Not gonna lie, Leo was kinda surprised he got a response like that. They were suddenly interrupted by a voice. "Hey! Why the long face Kara?" She'd recognize that voice anywhere.  They both looked up to see a giant man with muscles that could easily rip an altean gladiator to shreds. A metal hand on one hip and a human hand on the other. His face as care worn, but still handsome. A faded scar slashed across the bridge of his nose. His dark eyes were a lot like Keith and Kara's but instead of fire behind them, a steely resolve. He had two white streaks on either side of his undercut contrasting with his other wise black hair and his signiture white floof front and center sticking out like rooster feathers. Leo and Kara were shocked that he was even here. "Uncle Shiro!" They said at the same time as the got up to give him a hug. He gave the best ones. He was the current paladin's Space Dad, but to the kids, he was the worlds greatest uncle. (But of course Coran had the official title of Weird Uncle Space) "What are you doing here?" Asked Kara. "Well I figured it was finally time for Sarah to attempt to bond with Black so I brought her here. " Shiro explained as he hugged his "adopted" niece and nephew. "But I thought you didn't want her to be a paladin." Kara looked at Shiro confused. "I know." Shiro's expression darkened, "And I still don't. But I'm not gonna be the one who crushed her dreams. I just don't want her to go through the same things that I did. Shiro looked at his galra made metal arm. That thing was a blessing and a curse to him. It really came in handy during fights and missions, but it was always a reminder of what happened to him. No matter how hard he tried to forget, it was always there. Like it wouldn't /let/him forget. "She's your kid." Kara piped up after a long silence. "She's strong like you. She can handle anything. She was born for this." Kara reassured him. "I hope you're right." Shrill responded solemnly. "But enough about me." He looked at Kara and furrowed his brow. "You look like you've been crying. What happened?" He asked. "Oh." Kara tore her gaze away from Shiro. She suddenly felt the shame wash over her again. "Leo...." Shiro looked at him."I'll just let you too talk it out then. " Leo saw it was his cue to exit stage right and went back towards the door to the green lion's hangar. "I'll ask Lilly and Danny to whip you up something sweet to make you feel better, ok?" He called out after them. "Thanks Leo!" Kara shouted back as she and Shiro went down the hallway. "Now tell me what happened." Shiro said calmly. Kara had to go through the whole story again and tried her best to keep from crying again. Then she lit up a little when she told Shiro about Leo's idea about her being his co-pilot. That made Kara feel at least a little better. She didn't notice it until they were already there, but they had walked all the way to the Black Lion's hangar. They walked in and Kara was taken aback just by how much bigger the Black Lion was compared to all the other Lions. It had to be taller than Red by at least a good 20 more feet. Heck even it's claws were bigger than her! She suddenly felt a weird energy Coming from Black. She looked into the lion's eyes and it was almost like..... they were following her. Not Shiro, but her. "I know what will make you feel better. " Shiro said behind her. "What?" Kara asked. "How about a quick ride around the asteroid belt? You can use the bayard and slice some rocks in half!" Trying to get her to smile. Shiro enjoyed spoiling the kids. It's one of the few joys he had left in this world. However, Kara was his only actual niece considering how close he is with Keith he might as well have been his older brother. So he took it upon himself to be the most badass uncle ever. "Now you're speaking my language! " Kara exclaimed. They both laughed and headed towards the the Black Lion with Kara walking ahead. Then, all of a sudden, the unthinkable happened. The Black Lion's eyes flowed to life and let out a mighty roar. It lowered its head and opened its mouth. Kara could hear Its voice in her head. _Enter._ Kara looked around and then back to Black. "Me?" She asked and pointed to herself. _Yes._ Black responded. She walked into the cockpit of the Black Lion. Shiro was just as shocked and confused so he walked a few steps behind Kara. _Take your place, Black Paladin._ She heard Black say. Suddenly she felt the urge to sit at the pilot's chair. She carefully sat down as if the chair were a spring loaded trap. The inside of the cockpit came to life and lit up purple. Then Kara came to the horrifying realization that made her feel even worse than she did before. _Oh my god S_ he thought in terror. _I just bonded with the Black Lion!_

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOO! sorry that was such a long chapter, guys! But I wanted this one to be a doozy! God bless sweet little Leo for being a good BFF and helping out poor Kara. I couldn't decide weather or not to leave it on the point that I did, but then I saw how long it was already, and decided that this chapter had gone on long enough. If I didn't end it now it would have gone on forever! So, yeah. Enjoy your angst! MWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


	3. Capter 3: Reconciliation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith comforts Kara and gives her what advice he can. He slowly starts to relate to Kara a little more than he anticipated. Is it just him or does the future sound like its repeating history? Kara and Sarah reconcile (Hence the chapter title) and we get a sneak peak of the two peas in a genetically modified pod, Leo and Pidge at the end.

Chapter 3

Reconciliation

* * *

Kara ran into a room that looked like the one Shiro gave her and plopped down onto the bed. All she felt like doing right now was let sleep carry her guilt and shame away. Not only did she accidentally put the fear of God into Sarah, but she lost control of her magic and made a complete idiot of herself in front of Shiro, the previous Black Paladin. She didn't even want to know what Shiro thought of her now; it would just make her feel worse. What she wouldn't give for one of her Dad's hugs right now. Suddenly, as if the Universe heard her, she heard the doors hiss open. She was hoping it was Leo, so she wouldn't have to explain herself, but no. Of all people, it really _was_  her Dad. Keith walked into his room to find Kara, who had on her regular outfit instead of her armor now, crying silently with her face buried in her hands. She must have thought this was her room by mistake. It's not like he had anything that would indicate it being his room anyway, unlike his other fellow Paladins. Keith was absolutely no good at knowing how to make people feel better, but he knows this kind of pain. Guilt, shame, self loathing, he's been through the ringer when it came to those. Kara raised her head just enough to see him. So this is what Dad looked like when he was her age. She had her suspicions that she was basically a female carbon copy when it came  how she looked, but now she knew it was true, except Kara's eyeliner was flawless thanks to the teachings of Uncle Shiro. She didn't wear a lot of makeup, but she would be lying if she said she didn't want to be a little bit like her badass Uncle. In fact, she got the idea of shaving half her head from him, too. "Uh....hey?" Keith's people skill are still a work in progress, so that was pretty much the best he could do. "Oh, am I in your room? I'm sorry, I'll just get up and go." Kara started to scoot off the bed towards the door. "No, its ok." Keith found himself saying. "I don't blame you. It's not like there's a sign on the door anyway." Kara stopped as her legs swung over the bed. Keith walked over and sat down next to her. "I'm pretty sure Sarah doesn't hate you." Keith tried. "Why shouldn't she?" Kara asked. "I took away the one thing she wanted most in the entire universe without even meaning to. She has every right to be mad at me. I forged my bond with the Black Lion completely on accident after I got rejected by Red." _Wait.....what?_ Now Keith was really interested. How does one bond with one of the lions on accident? "How did you do _that_ ?" Keith raised an eyebrow in question. Kara explained everything that happened that day, leaving out certain parts like the Red Paladin being her father and her father's true identity of course. Keith started to pick up the idea that she was hiding the identity of the Paladin in question for a very important reason and wasn't just summing up the story. He could feel the guilt and shame radiating off of her. She reminded him of when he had to fly the Black Lion. He had no idea what he was doing. He felt guilty, like he was somehow replacing Shiro somehow. Then he remembered what Lance told him. ' _Keith, no one can replace Shiro, but the Black Lion wouldn't choose anybody it didn't feel was worthy to lead Voltron. I respect it's choice. And you should too."_ I mean it was worth a shot, right? "I remember when the Black Lion chose me." Keith began, "After Shiro went missing, we all tried to bond with it, but it wouldn't respond to anyone else except me. I hoped it wouldn't, but I guess Black agreed with Shiro's decision in choosing me to lead in his absence. I tried for so long to deny it because It felt like accepting it meant that Shiro was really gone. I had no idea what I was doing and I tried to pull away by joining the Blade of Marmora. That didn't go as planned when I put the entire team, a bunch if refugees, and an entire quadrant of planets in jeopardy. I still beat myself up over it from time to time. I was lucky that Shiro was able to reestablish his bond with Black. It could have gone very differently that day if he hadn't." Kara remembered Keith- _or Dad-_ telling her that story when she was a little younger. She wondered for a while about the possibility of flying Black. Little did she know it would be reality a few years later. " I should have taken my own advice and practiced what I preached. I told Lance once when he thought that he should step aside to stop worrying about who flies what and focus on your mission." Keith looks back on the memory and mentally kicks himself. Now that part was new. Kara never heard that part of the story before. "I guess you're wondering what my point is.......well,....the most I can tell you is to not make the same mistake I did. The Black Lion chose you. You can't change that, I can't change that. But this isn't about you. This is about the universe. And the longer you try to push it away, the more its going to affect your team. Selfless duty calls you to sacrifice your own needs and do whatever it takes to protect the universe." Kara had to sit on that for a while. No matter how much she didn't like it, as usual, her _future_ Dad was right. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're right." Kara finally spoke. "You gotta stop worrying about who flies what and focus on your mission." Keith added. "Thank you.....that's actually good advice." Kara looked thankful. As if a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders. "But, then there leaves one last problem. How am I gonna fix things with Sarah?" And this is where Keith had no idea what to tell her. "Now unfortunately, I can't help you with that one. You're gonna have to sort that out with her." Kara sighed, dreading when she would have to leave the room. "I wish I didn't have to." Keith began to relate. "I know. My people skills aren't that great either." Keith admitted, "But you're going to have to fix it eventually if you guys ever want to work together and form Voltron." "I know you're right. Its just....hard." Kara felt that _'difficult'_   wouldn't have been the right word to use. Too much of an overstatement. "I don't even want to know how Uncl-....I mean Shiro sees all of this. I made a complete idiot out of myself in front of the previous Black Paladin! At least that's how it looked to everyone else. I figured taking Sarah in that fight and purposefully losing would boost her confidence a little. But then she had to knock off my helmet and....." Kara trailed off. After that sock to the jaw, she can only remember bits and pieces after her vision turned red.Keith was about toask a question when he stopped and thought ' _Wait. Did Kara just stop herself from calling Shiro her Uncle?'_  Last time he checked, Shiro never told him he had any siblings or if they had any kids. He pretended not to hear her slip up. He had to get more info."Yeah, what happened back there?" Keith asked finally. Last time he checked, humans aren't able to rain down literal hellfire on their own like that. Kara explained her magic and how she got it the same way she explained it to Shiro. Keith thought it was pretty cool and wondered if Allura could do the same thing for him and the current paladins. ".....But for some of us, this kind of power comes at a cost. My fire magic is extreamely tempermental." She held out her hand and a flame sprung to life. She shifted it to look like a flaming rose. "It requires a mastery of self control and restraint, which I'm still working on. Sarah caused me to lose that for a split second from the shock of her punching me, but that's all my magic needed in order for it to take over. The crystals that give us our magic are from the Balmera and they are just as alive as the Balmera itself. So, I have to work with it like an extension of myself and its not like a split personality thing. Fire magic is controlled through emotions and energy, So being level headed in a fight is mandatory." Keith kinda looked like he just had his own mind blow and Kara looked at him like she thought she broke him. ".......Oh." Keith spoke after a minute, "That...actually makes a lot of sense!" "...........So, I guess I better get back out there and fix what I broke, huh?" Kara looked at Keith and smiled reluctantly. "Guess so." Keith put a hand on her shoulder. "The thing is... I don't know how." Kara looked to him again as if he had the answers. "I'm not very good in that department either." Keith admitted. She detected a hint of sadness in his voice; like he recently fucked up royally and didn't know how to fix his own mistake anymore that she did. "Like I said, my people skills are garbage." "Aw, don't feel bad." Kara tried to comfort him, " Social interreaction isn't my strong suit either. In fact, the only two people I've actually ever done that with are Sarah and Leo." "Well then, what would Leo tell you?" Kara had to think about that for a minute before answering. Kara sighed. "He'd tell me that I shouldn't let something like this ruin mine and Sarah's friendship. Although, she's more like a sister to me than a friend. Kinda like you and Shiro." _'Oh no.'_   Kara thought. She forgot for a second that Keith wasn't her actual Dad yet when she said that. Red alert bells went off in her head. She's only been here an hour and she's already almost blown her cover! "How do you know that?" Keith raised an eyebrow in suspicion. Kara started to panic "I mean you two looked so much alike I assumed you two were related. Are you not?" _'Phew, nice recovery.'_   Keith could obviously see it as a cover up, but he didn't say anything. "No, but we might as well be." Keith admitted. Shiro really _is_ like a brother to him, but Kara and these other kids have only been here for two vargas (an hour). There's no way they could have gotten that from the two of them in that time. Kara decided it was time to exit stage left before Keith got any more suspicious. "Well, I think I'm gonna go find Sarah and apologize." Kara got up from the bed and headed towards the door. "Thanks for the advice! See ya!" She ran out the door as it shut behind her. He could hear her boots pounding on the floor, getting farther and farther away. Now was his time to go find Shiro. They needed to get Pidge in on this as his fellow conspiracy buddy to help figure this out. Keith poked his head out the door and looked both ways to make sure Kara wasn't in the hallway. When the coast was clear, he started making his way towards the training deck to find Shiro.

Kara walked down another corridor heading back to the training deck. She didn't know if Sarah was still there or not, but she had to start somewhere. She rounded the corner only to be met face to face with Sarah and....oh great. Shiro was standing behind her. "Oh..........um." Kara didn't really get beyond as far as finding Sarah when it came to her plan. "Sarah...I-" "Kara, stop." Sarah cut her off. "I'm the one who needs to apologize. Not you." Kara looked at her completely dumbfounded. "You are?" she asked. "Yes, I am." Sarah put her hand on Kara's shoulder. "I know that you didn't want this. I knew you felt guilty about taking Black away from me on accident. But despite that, I was still mad at you and I made that a lot more difficult for you to deal with. I tried not to be, but I was angry. I had every right to be, but I had no right to take it out on you. And I'm really sorry for that. And I'm sorry I made you lose control of your magic. That part was definitely my fault. I never should have goated you into that stupid fight." Kara definitely did not see that coming. Suddenly, she was pulled into a hug. "Now will you please not try to kill me again?" "I can't make any promises on that." Kara joked. "And I was planning on throwing that fight anyway tot try and make you feel better."  "Daw, stop it man! you're gonna make me cry!" Sarah blinked back tears. "oh, no you don't. If you start crying, I start crying and then we're all in trouble!" Kara started getting misty eyed too. They both giggled in unison. Shiro couldn't help but wonder if these two were actually related. They seemed to be closer to each other than the other young paladins as if they were actually sisters or something. "Glad to see you two made up." he finally spoke up. Honestly, Kara and Sarah forgot he was even there for a second. "Now head over to the kitchen. Hunk's making real chocolate chip cookies and he needs a taste tester." The girls looked at each other with wide eyed excitement. "RACE YOU THERE!" Kara bolted down the hall, leaving Sarah in the dust. "HEY NO FAIR!" Sarah made a mad dash after her, leaving Keith and Shiro alone in the otherwise silent hallway. They had to laugh to themselves a little. Seeing people close to their own age bounce around all happy really made them a sight for sore eyes. And to think our current paladins used to be just like them once. It seemed so long ago now. "Ah, youth." Shiro smiled and put his hands on his hips. "Were you ever that energetic at their age?" asked Keith. Shiro had to think on that for a minute. If it felt like forever since he went on the Kerberos mission with Pidge's brother and father, then trying to remember his younger years felt like an eternity. Bouncing off the walls, copying the moves of cartoon ninjas on TV despite the protests of his Mother. "Yes," Shiro admitted, "Yes, I was." On the way to Pidge's room, Keith relayed all the info he got from talking to Kara. Her magic control, how the Black Lion rejected her, how she felt ashamed of herself for letting Shiro see her like that, even the advice Keith gave to her. Not going to lie, he was pretty proud of Keith. Shiro just wished that Keith had more confidence in himself to see just how much of a leader he could become one day. ".....Then she kinda slipped and stopped herself from calling you 'Uncle.'" At this, Shiro's eyes got wide. "I...don't have any siblings, Keith. Well besides you, technically." "I know." The gears in Keith's head were turning. If Shiro didn't have any siblings, then why did Kara almost call him her Uncle?.....Unless.... Before Keith could think about it more, they arrived at Pidge's room. The doors hissed open to reveal Pidge and Leo playing Killbot Phantasm 1. Judging by the scores on the makeshift screen, the two green nerds were in a deadlock tie and fighting a boss battle with half health and no healing potions. "Hey, Leo can we talk to Pidge for a second? Alone?" "NOT NOW!" Leo and Pidge yelled in unison, thoroughly startling both Keith and Shiro. Suddenly, the stone dragon on screen began charging up an attack. A massive red fireball aimed directly at both of Leo and Pidge's characters. "nononononnono!" They both spluttered as the dragon roasted both of their characters, burning them to an ashy crisp as 'GAME OVER' flashed across the screen in giant red 16-bit letters. "AW COME ON!" Pidge shouted enraged. "HOW CAN FATE BE SO CRUEL!" Leo bellowed dramatically as he fell back onto the bed. "We were so close and yet so far!" Pidge took a deep breath and exhaled dejectedly. "Well, I guess I can talk now." said Pidge. The feeling of defeat in her voice matched her signature '1000% done with everything' face she made from time to time. "I'll just show myself out, then." Leo walked in between Keith and Shiro. He swallowed nervously and went out of the room. They all waited until Leo was around the corner and without of an earshot. Now to get Pidge in on their little conspiracy theory.

* * *

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I had to cut this chapter so short this time, guys. But I got stuff to do in a few hours at the time I'm writing this and since there's no way to save my work on the archive, I didn't feel like writing all of this again on the morrow. So yeah. But of course I saved the whole chapter in Microsoft word as well as the previous chapters as backup! Mama didn't raise no fool! Anyway, Enjoy this chapter because in the next one, we got the Conspiracy Trio pulling black ops and spying on the future Paladins! You may have to wait a minute for chapter 4, but remember; "Patience yields focus." -Shiro


	4. Chapter 4: To Be A Leader

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Shiro get Pidge in on their little conspiracy theory and proceed to spy on the paladins. Pidge accidentally finds out more than what she bargained for. Kara maybe over what happened between her and Sarah now, after a few days, but she's still ashamed for letting Shiro see her lose it like that. She embarrassed herself in front of the previous leader of Voltron and can't even bring herself to look him in the eye. A heart to heart ensues.

Chapter 4

To Be A Leader

* * *

"So, let me get this straight. You want me to rig up surveillance drones with cloaking devices because you want to spy on the future paladins?" Pidge had to make sure she heard that correctly. Keith and Shiro look at each other, then back to her. "That pretty much sums it up, yeah." Shiro confirmed. "But why? Pidge's brows furrowed, "Their allabi for being here is air tight. And Leo seems like a pretty nice guy. He's like me except for...well, you get the idea." "And you don't find that a little strange?" Keith tried to appeal to her conspiracy side. "No, not really." Pidge shrugged. "I mean there is a startling resemblance in or physical appearance, but then again everyone on earth has an identical twin somewhere. Trust me, I've seen it happen. But then there's also the possibility of him being me from an alternate reality in which I'm an actual dude instead of just pretending to be one. Although I don't know where the name Leo would have came from. He can't be a clone of me because the Galra haven't perfected their tech enough to do that yet. It can be done with magic, but the person who made them can only keep them alive for a short amount of time, or until said clone is attacked. Shiro you saw Zarkon's witch clone herself more than once. You should know what I'm talking about." Shiro's expression darkened. "I wish I didn't." "Personally, I think you guys are just being paranoid." Pidge admitted. "But, I don't really have anything better to do, so I might as well do something somewhat productive. Although Allura might not approve of it." "we're only going to use the drones on the Future Paladins, not anybody else." Shiro assured her. "Well as long as I don't end up hearing Lance sing Shakira in the shower again through the headset I plan on using, then I guess its alright." Pidge shuddered. Keith and Shiro had to stifle their laughs. And with that, Pidge had 5 drones complete with mics and cloaking within 6 Vargas. For the next few days, Pidge had turned her laptop into a security monitor complete with a headset to listen in on their conversations, taking a break here and there to train and hang out with Leo who is now officially her best bro. That and the occasional snack break. Somehow, Hunk, Lilly, and Danny were able to make cookies out of non-earth food ingrdiants that made the cookies taste like peanut butter! As for the footage she's been getting, nothing interesting so far. Somehow, the Future Paladins haven't mentioned their parents or families at all when they were away from the Current Paladins. Its almost like they knew they were being spied on. That, or it just hasn't occurred to them to talk about them yet. Or they were going off the 'even walls have ears' thing and just chose not to mention them. That is until Pidge switched the camera feed to check on the drone following Leo. He was in Kara's room and from the looks of it, Pidge was intruding on an emotional conversation. "Crazy day huh?" Kara asked as she sat down on the bed next to Leo. "You're telling me. I travel back in time 20 years to the galra war and become best friends with...well...you know who." said Leo rather excitedly. "Nobody else is here except me, dude." Kara assured him, "Its ok to say it out loud." " I just can't believe how much I'm like her!" Leo exclaimed. "I never actually believed it until I met her! She's so cool!" Leo was all kinds of excited about being best bros with his mother when she was younger. At first, Pidge didn't feel right about eavesdropping on her new best friend like this, but then again somebody has to make sure he's not talkin' smack about her. "You should have seen her on the training deck today! It was awesome!!!!! a near perfect combination of brain and braun! And her holograms?! Genious! I'll definitely have to try that out once we actually get to wear the real paladin armor!" Leo went on rambling and fangirling over how cool his mom is. Pidge couldn't help but blush and feel happy that someone appreciated her style of fighting and understood it the way he did. And then,.....she heard the unthinkable. "I just can't believe that.....she's my mom!" said Leo wistfully.

_Woa..........hold the fuck up...........what?!_

Did Leo just call her his..... _Mom?_   Pidge's brain went into overdrive. Is Leo completely crazy? There's no way she could be this kid's mother......unless..... Kara did say that they came from 20 years into the future. Pidge is definitely not at the age right now where she would even think about having a kid, but 20 years later, When she's in her mid 30's? there was definitely a possibility. Suddenly Leo's expression slowly turned from wistfully happy, to sad. "What's wrong?" Kara asked, noting the change. "Now I just miss her even more." Leo tried to blink back his tears. Kara gently pulled him closer to her to hold him in her arms. "I know." Kara said softly. "But, it's only been a month. They couldn't have gotten that far with her." Leo looked up at her. "Are you kidding me?! Only a month? she could be anywhere in the universe by now!" Leo started to cry. Kara just pulled him in closer for a hug. "But that's why you came with us." Kara tried in an effort to comfort him, "So you could train and get good enough so you can find her when we get back. And when you do, there's going to be hell to pay when it comes to her captors." Kara takes both of Leo's hands in hers. "And you won't be looking for her alone." Kara holds Leo's face in her gloved hands and wipes a tear away with her thumb. "Because I'm coming with you." Leo's big amber eyes grew wide. "What?" "Well, yeah. I could help you find her and it would be two best friends traveling the universe together! That way we can co-pilot green together, just like we planned!" Kara smiled. Leo sprung foreward and hugged her. "Oh, Kara I'm so happy I could kiss you!" _'Oh, Quiznak!'_ red alert bells went off in Leo's head. He turns his brain off for one second and stuff like this happens! "Oh...uuuuuhhh." Leo had no idea how to recover from this one. "............Really?" Kara asked after a long awkward pause. Leo had no idea what to say. From the looks of it, he only had two options. 1: tell the truth and say yes, or 2: Lie and say no. Leo hated lying and he hated being lied to. He promised himself to never lie to anyone unless absolutely necessary. Kara was his best friend. How could he ever think of lying to her. Plus, Kara is one of the most chill people he's ever met, don't let her magic fool you. She's pretty much cool with whatever, so why is he so afraid of telling her? "Uh......yes?" his voice cracked a little. Pidge suddenly felt very wrong about spying on them like this. She knew out of all her fellow paladins what privacy meant. Not only that, but what its like to have a missing family member. Sure, she found matt, but her Father was still out there somewhere. She took off her headset  and switched the camera feed to Lilly, Hunk, and Danny who were baking in the kitchen. She made up her mind that she would destroy the drones and confront Leo about this privately. She swore to herself that she would never tell Shiro or Keith anything about what she found out. It wasn't her info to give anyway. And she knew enough about time travel and stuff from watching so many movies and doing so much research on it that revealing such information could possibly alter the course of the future to the point where Leo and the other Future Paladins wouldn't exist. That is, unless they were really, _really_ careful. Pidge started typing and her hacker icon appeared on screen. She sent out a call to all her drones to return to their mother. When they got back to her room, she would wipe their memory banks clean and delete every single shred of footage she had stored on her computer. The Current Paladins can never know.

Kara and Leo looked at each other for a long time. Leo had been around her enough to know every inch of her face and how certain features got there. The scar on her left eyebrow, for example got there in a sparring match when Leo's whip accidentally got her right in the eye. Leo was terrified at first and thought he blinded her. But thankfully, it only scarred the eyebrow. Leo felt really guilty about it for a while, but after the bandage came off and they saw the scar, they both agreed it made her look cooler. The bruise from where Sarah got her in the jaw the other day was still there and was still kinda purple. It's not like Kara didn't do this either, matter of fact, she did the same thing. Sometimes out of boredom they would play connect the dots with the freckles on his face for shits and giggles. Leo wore the same glasses his mom used to wear that were given to her by her brother, Matt before he went off on the fated Kerberos mission. At this point, those glasses are pretty much a family heirloom. The dark circles under his eyes matched hers, for both of them never had a proper sleep schedule, and probably never will. Leo had a very kind face that made Kara's mood lighten every time she saw him. He just had a way of making her feel at least a little less anxious about everything. All things considered, she really would have loved to be Leo's co-pilot in the Green Lion, had she not bonded with Black on accident. They moved closer together until their lips were only inches apart. The drones in Leo's room silently got the call sign Pidge sent out and headed towards the door. Unfortunately, this was extreamely poor timing because when the doors hissed open to let the drones out, Kara and Leo were snapped out of their moment to look over the bed to see who was there. The drones were invisible, so it looked like no one was there and the doors just opened all by themselves. Now things were just awkward. neither of them knew what to say or do. What are you even supposed to do when you almost kissed the person you've had a crush on for years, but got interrupted? Kara got up and poked her head through the door and looked both ways. The hallway was completely empty. "okaaay?" Kara walked back into the room and just kinda stood there next to Leo. Cue long awkward silence. Finally Leo was able to look Kara in the eye. "I....uuuuh-" Leo was cut off by the beeping of his wrist watch, signaling that Hunk and the twins just got done whipping up a new alien delicacy . _'Phew! Saved by the beep!'_ he thought to himself in relief. "Oh, dinner!" Kara exclaimed and fast walked out the door, "I'm starving!" Leo followed out after her only to be approached by Pidge. "Hey, Leo. Can I talk to you for a minute?" She asked. Leo looked behind him as kara went the opposite direction to get food. "Uh, sure." Leo followed Pidge down the hallway to her room, walking further and further away from Kara. One day he'll tell her. He promised himself. One day.

Kara made a mad dash down the hall towards the kitchen and found Lilly, Danny, and Hunk putting the finishing touches on an -quite literally- out of this world dish. It looked like a bowl of rainbow colored soup with flowers that looked like the pink Altean Junaberries that she heard about from Auntie Allura. "Alright, my dudes!" Danny announced, "Dinner is served!" Shiro entered the room and Kara looked away nervously. Shiro noticed and walked over to her. "Hey, Kara. Something wrong?" he asked. Kara refused to look at him. "Hey..... I'm fine. Just... hungry." was all Kara could manage. Shiro had noticed something off in Kara the past couple of days-well, more so than usual-around him in particular. Yesterday, he gave her a few pointers after her spar with Leo yesterday in the training deck. Kara couldn't look him in the eye for some reason. She just kept her head down and said "Sorry, I'll do better next time." And the day before that, she tried to avoid him at all costs; Even when he offered to spar with her. She chose to spar with Hunk instead. Not going to lie, it was one of the more....interesting fights he's seen. Kara won of course, promptly making Lori win a bet in which Lilly had to pay up. And now, she won't even talk to him unless she has to. Shiro had to nip this in the bud before this got any worse. After everyone got done with their "Rainbow Soup" and left the kitchen, Shiro stopped Kara from leaving. _'oh great.'_ she felt like she was being told to stay after class for challenging the kids that were bullying Leo to a fight. Again. And Winning for the 3rd time in a row. Some people just never learn; no matter how many times you try to beat the stupid out of them. "Come with me." Shiro took her by the hand and lead her to the lounge. He sat down and patted the seat next to him. Kara sighed with dread and sat down next to her future Uncle. "What did I do?" Kara asked as if she was expecting this. "You're not in trouble, Kara.' Shiro assured her, "I just wanted to talk with you, Black Paladin to Black Paladin. I want to know what's going on. You've been avoiding me and I was wondering if _I_ did something." "Oh, no! You didn't do anything wrong!" Kara shook her head rapidly, "Of course not!.......Its just me." Kara looked away from him. "I felt so ashamed for letting you see me like that. I made a complete idiot of myself! I didn't want you to think less of me because of that. I was planning on throwing that fight! How am I supposed to be a leader when I can't even control my own magic?" Shiro couldn't help but pity her. This girl is definitely not him. She's got the same responsibilities on her shoulders as he does, but even worse is that she's a kid. Shiro is 25 and Kara isn't any older than Keith. "Kara, it was an accident. You're still young." He put his human hand on her shoulder, careful to avoid the spikes on her jacket, "You're allowed to make mistakes." Kara looks down and fiddles with the silver lion head ring she wears on her left hand. "I'm the Black Paladin of Voltron, I can't afford to make mistakes." Kara argued. She had the look of a soldier on her face.  "Failure is not an option. I can't just pick and choose when to mess up or do something wrong. I have to hold myself to a higher standard than the rest of the Paladins do because the safety of the entire universe rets on my shoulders. If I mess up and put anybody in jeopardy, the blame will be on my head, and the blood on my hands. _You_ may forgive me if I make a mistake, the other Paladins may forgive me if I make a mistake, but the rest of the universe may not." As much as Shiro hated to admit it, Kara was partially right. He would have to be very careful with what he said next. Its not something he can control, but more like a certain mind set he goes into when Space Dad mode is activated. "Well, you technically aren't the black paladin yet right?" Shiro asked. "What?" Kara sounded confused. "You aren't flying the black lion yet, right? Who is in your time?" Shiro elaborated. "Right." Kara got it. "And you are."  Shiro's smile dropped. How could he still be the Black Paladin if the galra war ended 20 years prior?! "I know what you're thinking." Kara took his metal hand in hers, her silver ring clinking against the metal. Shiro flinched at the contact. "You told us that it was too hard to adjust to life back on earth, even after you took a very long, well deserved vacation. You said the Black Lion kept calling to you. That, and someone else was, In a manner of speaking, if ya know what I mean." Kara nudged him a little. Shrio turned a little pink. Who could that be? Suddenly Shiro remembered what he was going to say before they de-railed. "My point is that you still have time then." Shiro chose his words, carefully."Time to make mistakes and learn from them, time to grow and improve and become the leader Voltron needs. That's why the Black Lion chose you. Because you have potential. It knows what your capable of. Just like when it chose Keith. And Like I said, you shouldn't be worried about that kind of responsibility right now if you don't have to yet. Enjoy being a kid while it lasts because its not going to be forever. Sometimes its ok to just be a kid for a while."  Kara looked at him like he just lifted the sky off of her shoulders. "You're right." Kara said finally, "Guess I've been overthinking it a little, huh?" "Nah." Shiro smiled. "That just means you're taking your role as leader seriously." Kara went foreward and pulled Shiro in for a hug. Shiro stiffened for a second, but the wrapped his arms around her slender, but surprisingly muscular figure. Kara noted that even before he became her Uncle, he still gives the best hugs. He was warm, and felt safe. Kind of like an electric heating blanket, but more alive and human. She could hear his heartbeat. A strong, soothing sound, but you can tell that its been through a lot. The heart of a Lion, indeed. "Thank you, Shiro." Kara sounded like this had happened before and was always grateful for his advice. Like it was something she really needed to hear. "Anytime, Kara." Shiro smiled, "You can always come talk to me if there's anything on your mind." he pulled away from her to look her in the eyes. "I know." Kara blinked back tears, "And you have no idea how much that means to me." The doors to the lounge hissed open and Leo walked in. "Kara, can you-" Leo stopped himself short after taking in the scene. "Uuuuuh, is this a bad time?" "Oh no, Leo. You're right on time." Said Kara, "What's up?" "Can I talk to you for a minute? We...got a situation." Kara looked at him confused, but got up anyway and walked with him out of the lounge. She stopped at the doorway and looked back at Shrio. "You really are the Space Dad, aren't you?" Kara asked jokingly. Shiro laughed. "I guess I am." He said through giggles as Kara left the room. She followed Leo to his room and walked in as Leo looked around to make sure nobody else was within an earshot and closed the door behind him.

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! another long chapter for those among you who have nothing better to do!  
> I was going to have Kara actually kiss Leo, but I thought it would be more fun to build their relationship a little more!  
> Next chapter we get to see some of the daughter of everyone's favorite blue hot mess, Lori! And oh, boy, just you wait and see the tricks she's got up her sleeve! MWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!! Enjoy until then!


	5. Chapter 5: Well Laid Plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After receiving a tip from the undercover Blades about Zarkon's progress on a weapon that cold destroy Voltron for real this time, the gang hatch a plan to try and stop it in which the future paladins are given a chance to test their metal. The future paladins agree to tell the current paladins their true identities after Kara finds out that Pidge knows the truth. It's only a matter of time before everyone else figures it out too, so might as well let the proverbial cat out of the bag after their mission is over.

Chapter 5

Well Laid Plans

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"WHAT?!" Kara roared. "She knows?!" "Yes! But she promised that she wouldn't tell anyone!" Leo tried to calm Kara down. "We can trust her! Keith and Shiro are only suspicious and she told them she didn't find anything. She destroyed all the drones and got rid of all the evidence! We're safe!" "Yeah, for now." Kara added, "But now that one of them knows, its only a matter of time before Shiro and Keith start questioning Pidge if what she said is true or not. We can't let this go on if this is how its gonna be." "So what do we do?" Leo asked. Kara wished it didn't have to come to this, but seeing the other possabilities if they didn't tell them, they were left with no other choice. "......The one thing we aren't supposed to do." Leo's eyes grew wide. "You mean....actually tell them?" "Well, unless you have a better plan. Keith and Shiro are nowhere near yours and Pidge's intelligence level, but they are still very smart and very perceptive. They are bound to catch on eventually. I'd rather admit it of my own free will rather than being backed into a corner and forced to talk." Leo didn't see any other way either. At least Pidge was the first one to find out, so that spares him the awkward dramatic reveal in front of everyone. He sighed in defeat. "Call the rest of the team." Kara commanded. "Tell them...the jig is up." Leo lifted up his arm to beep the other Future Paladins, but was interrupted when Princess Allura's voice came over a loud speaker, thoroughly scaring the Quiznack out of Leo and Kara and making them jump a few feet. "Attention all Paladins, Present and Future." Allura's voice boomed, "Meet in the control room in 60 tics. We have received valuable information from the Blade of Marmora." Leo and Kara looked at eachother and ran out of the rom, racing down the halls to get to the control room. 

Allura was waiting for them when they got there. So was everyone else except for Hunk and Danny who shortly came in after. "Soory we're late." said Danny apologetically. "The food goo hose had a malfunction again and we had to tame it until we could fix it." Hunk explained. "Well, I'm afraid that will have to wait." Allura stepped onto her usual platform. "We received some information from the undercover agents of the Blade of Marmora. I must warn you though, its a little....unnerving." Her expression became worried. "Zarkon's witch has figured out a way to completely harvest the Quintessence from a planet in one fell swoop using magic." Shiro took over as a holographic projection of a planet dying as its Quintessence was being drained appeared. "We have reasons to believe that Zarkon's main engineers have figured out a way to put that magic into a weapon so that his witch isn't drained after every planet they drain." Allura spoke again. "Since she discovered that Voltron is powered by pure Quintessence, I'm willing to bet she's been working on that weapon specifically for us. If she's successful, the galra could finally have a weapon that could take down Voltron." The energy in the room suddenly turned to that of fear and seriousness. "So we need to destroy whatever they have already built before they can finish it." Kara spoke up. "Right." Shiro continued, "The only problem is that we don't know how to." "But we do know someone that does." Allura added as a screen came up displaying a picture of a galra soldier with blueish purple skin, yellow eyes, orange tiger stripes, and large fuzzy cat ears. "This is Glarung. According to the Blades, he's the assistant to one of the engineers working on the weapon. We need to find and capture him and get him to tell us how the weapon works so we'll know how to destroy it." "But, victory or death is the galra way." Keith spoke up. "There's no garuntee he'll talk. He'll probably try and get himself purposefully killed before we can even get him off the ship." "I can fix that." Sarah piped up. The black gem on her neck glowed purple as she disappeared in a cloud of shadow. The current paladins looked around to see where she went. Poof! She reappeared behind Shiro. "BOO!" Shiro jumped a few feet and everyone else laughed except for Allura and Coran. "Alright then. We got us a teleporter." Said Shiro, "How far can you take someone?" "Well, 2 miles is my limit, so poofing back to the castle might be a bit of a stretch. I'll have to come back to whatever Lion we go in, which will be considerably closer, therefore easier to travel to." Sarah explained. "Then as soon as the lion gets close enough to the castle, poof back here with Glarung so he doesn't have time to escape." Sara threw a thumbs up in agreement. "And about the talking thing...." "You're gonna need me for that." Lori spoke up and strode forward. "I can be very persuasive when it comes to talking to people and getting what I want." Lori flipped her hair as the small crystal embedded in her cheek glowed blue along with her irises for a second. None of the Current Paladins wanted to ask what she meant by  that. Inside they already knew. "Alright then. Lori, you stay here and wait for Sarah to come back with Glarung for questioning." Shiro ordered. "Yes, sir." Lori nodded. Keith and Kara will go with Sarah in the Green Lion while its cloaked so they won't be spotted." Shiro explained as he made up the plan in his head. "I'll hack the security cameras so I can find where Glarung is and warn you of any gaurds coming or centries coming." Pidge added. "As soon as we get the information we need, we need to wipe any memory he has of his capture and that he divulged any information at all." Shiro stated, "If all goes well, the galra in the ship containing the weapon will never know we were there. We will have the information we need, and Glaring will be back on the shipwith no memory of what happened. We need to get these answers as soon as possible and put him back on the ship before anyone notices he was gone." "I can put him back as long as the Green Lion is within my two mile limit when we put him back." Sarah piped up. "Can do." Pidge gave her a thumbs up. "Alright, everyone. We have a plan. We'll start tomorrow. For now, rest up. Don't do anything too crazy, and eat a good meal." With that, the team meeting was over and everyone else went back to what they were doing. Kara and Leo exchanged a look from across the room and nodded. They gathered the rest of their crew without looking suspicious and all sat down in the cramped quarters of Kara's room.

"Alright guys, the jig is up." Kara announced solemnly. "You mean they know?!" Lilly asked nervously. "No, only Pidge does." Leo tried to calm her. "But, its only a matter of time before the others figure it out." Kara added, "We're going to have to come clean at some point weather we like it or not. And I'd rather tell the truth of my own free will." The rest of the future paladins looked at eachother and nodded in agreement. "So, when are we going to tell them?" Lori asked from the back, who was standing. She hated the feeling of her feet falling asleep, so if she didn't have to sit on the floor, she wasn't going to. "After our mission." Kara stated affirmatively, "We'll sit them all down and tell them who we are. Pidge already knows Leo is her son, so he's going to be going first and tell the rest of them. Its important to be calm and make sure you don't break them, guys. Remember, they're the same age as us currently. And NEVER, under ANY circumstances, are we to reveal the identities of our other parents. Being my mom, Leo's father, you get the idea. doing so could alter the course of the future to the point where none of us exist. "Agreed." Sarah piped up. "Except for you, Kara. Both of your parents are part of the team." Kara added. "You're telling me." Sarah said annoyed. "I've already had Allura on my back asking me questions about my Altean heritage. I knew I should have covered up my cheek marks with concealer before we left!" "Well, that's neither here nor there now." Kara interjected before she started to ramble. "Besides, its your hair that's going to be the dead giveaway." Sarah pulled the black beanie a little further over he head to keep her hair from coming out. Hiding as much hair as she has is not as easy as it sounds. "Tomorrow is going to be one batshit crazy day, guys." Kara said honestly. "Prepare yourselves." Kara clapped her hands, signaling the end of their little meeting as everyone filed out of the room. All except Leo, that is. He always stayed behind after team meetings. He acted as Kara's second in command even though he wasn't the pilot of the Red Lion. The situation between her and Sarah was dealt with, but it was still healing. Of course, it would be a thing of the past in time though; she and Sarah were almost sisters after all. Plus, Kara liked to talk to Leo. Out of all the paladins he was kinda the most chill. He had a very calming effect on Kara that no one else did and the boy had unshakable faith in his best friend. But that certainly won't stop him from calling her out for doing something stupid, which Kara greatly appreciated. Sometimes friends need to put eachother in check, for its the friends who have the guts to actually do it that really matter. To Kara, if Sarah was her "Sister" , then Leo was her "Ride Or Die Best Friend." Leo leaned against the wall and folded his arms. "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" he asked. "Do we even have a choice?" Kara responded with another question. Leo already knew the answer,but just wanted to make sure. "I'm scared, Leo." Kara admitted after a long awkward silence. He looked at her with surprise. "About telling  _You Know Who_ that he's  _You Know What_? he asked, trying to gauge her response. Kara walked over to him and leaned against the wall next to him. Leo had to admit, Kara looked way cooler when she did it. Like father like daughter, he guessed. "No. I mean the mission." Kara sounded like she was mad that she was scared. "This is the first mission we've ever gone on. This isn't training like with Uncle Shiro and this isn't a simulator or piloting like with my Dad. This is the real deal. Not only that, this is war. We could literally die. What if we have to come home missing a paladin? What if something happens to me? What if-" Kara was cut off when Leo yanked her in for a hug. "Nothing is going to happen." Leo tried to sound certain to make her feel better. "Its going to take a lot more than a bunch of galra centires and a witch to get rid of you." Leo pulled away from her a little to look at her. "For some reason you just refuse to die." Kara laughed, seeming to feel better. Leo's little techie heart skipped a few beats, for Kara was the only real person that made him this happy the way technology did. Her laugh actually startled Leo the first time he heard it. Kara had a very...unique laugh to say the least. In that it wasn't loud or obnoctious, but that it sounded like a deep rich laughter that you would hear coming out of a dignified cartoon villain like Maleficent (Kara's Favorite). They were all very young at the time and were laughing at one of Uncle Shiro's hilariously bad Space Dad Jokes. Lori's laugh was really goofy and made her voice crack, Danny just chuckled, Lillynoe doesn't really laugh but she sure does giggle like a schoolgirl, Leo's was kinda hilarious because he would whheze and after a god five minutes he would get a stubborn case of the hiccups, and once you made Sarah laugh it was very difficult to get her to stop. However, when Kara laughed, everyone was a little shaken to hear such a bone chilling laugh come from such a little girl. It sure hadn't changed since then either. Lori teased her about going to steak candy from babies and Leo jumped a good ten feet in the air and Shiro was just kinda dumbfounded. Then, Leo remarked how she sounded like Maleficent and long story short, they all ended up dressing up as Sleeping Beauty character for Halloween that year. You can guess who Kara was. Leo grew to love her laugh over time. It was unique and hers alone. Leo smiled at her.If he could ever get her to laugh, he considered it an accomplishment. Kara smiled back, but then dropped it in exchange for a more nervous look. Her eves moved from side to side as if she were trying to make an important decision in her head. Leo suddenly realized that he was against the wall with Kara in front of him, her arm against the wall for support. "Leo.....did you really mean what you said earlier?" Kara looked him in the eye nervously. "About....well....." Kara just couldn't bring herself to say it. It was too embarassing for her. She didn't know anything about this sort of thing, but then again neither did Leo. Hey, a match made in socially and romaticly awkward heaven! It took Leo a second to figure out what she meant. 'Oh'. Leo's freckled cheeks turned a dusty pink and his fingers started twitching a little. A nervous tick if you will. Then, without thinking Leo's heart responded instead of his brain.  "Uh......hey wait a miunute. Didn't I say yes earlier?" before Leo had time to worry about what he just said, Kara grabbed him by the shirt and yanked him to her face until their lips met. Leo's brain started to short circuit. His heart had no idea how to respond so it just started beating faster. His amber eyes grew to the size of teacup saucers in the shock. Oh my god. Kara is kissing me. What do I do?  Her lips were rough, but warm. He cold feel the tiny scar she had on the left corner of her mouth. Red alerts were going off in his head , but his heart was setting off fireworks! Suddenly, Allura's voice came over an intercalm, completely cutting those thoughts off as Kara pulled away. "Alright, Paladins." She announced, Lights out in 2 dobashes. You have a big day tomorrow. SO rest up and have good dreams." the room went quiet as the voice cut off. Not really knowing what to say, the only thing Leo could think of was "Um....uh....I guess I should go." Kara didn't really object either. Neither of them knew what they were doing when it came to this stuff, so she let him walk towards the door as it hissed open. "Sweet dreams?" Leo tried. 'real smooth, Romeo.' he kicked himself. "Sweet dreams. Kara echoed back equally as wakward. Leo waved and walked out the door as it closed behind them. Kara hopped into bed after taking off her jacket and yanking the covers over her head. Tonight she could rest a little easier knowing that she at least did one thing she wanted to do just in case something happened to her on that fateful mission tomorrow. Kara was going to need a good nights sleep tonight of all nights, for tomorrow was certainly goung to be interesting in more ways than one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! New year, new chapter! Sorry it took me so long to get this one out. I've had a lot of stuff go in. So here it is even though its shorter tan i would have liked it, but I figured that this was a good place to stop. I hope everypne had a happy new year and I hope you guys enjoy! :)

**Author's Note:**

> Alright! First fanfction I've ever posted on the internet! First multi chapter too!  
> let me tell you it was bitch to figure out a name for Shiro's kid. Then I finally just settled on the name Sarah because it's pretty.  
> Fun Fact: Hunk's daughter's name. "Lilinoe" is the Kupua of the mist from Hawaiian mythology.  
> I do plan on writing the next chapter soon and oh boy do I got stuff planned.I cannot promise how often I will update chapters wise but I'm usually good at consistency, but we'll see! In the meantime, enjoy!


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